Sensitive Data Discovery

discovery? whatdata discovery?definition and discovery process

AWhen a person is tasked with data anonymization willthe first thing s/he does is try to understand what subset of data s/he needs to address with masking. InBasically, otherthe words,first onequestion wouldis need"what to defineis sensitive data and find all that corresponds to that definition.data"?

the definition

So,The whatterm does"Sensitive the terms "sensitive data"Data" or "PII data""PII" or "PHI data" means? The term"PHI" stands for the data that describes a person in such a wayspecific so thatway, with certain attributes. The knowledge of the valuevalues of thethese elementsattributes ofallows thisother datapeople theto re-identify that specific person can be re-identified among other people.

For example, the knowledge of Social Security Number allows learning a lot of things about thea personperson. asSocial itSecurity Number invariably is used in multiple systems toduring uniquelythis identifyperson's thelife person.and is unique. The SSN value in the wrong hands can lead to false credit card applications, fraud medical claims, and exposure of public information about students. Stolen

There is a black market for stolen PII has a price on the black market for the very reason that it helps to commit fraud.

Thus, before masking activities even start, one has to find all the elements that have an ability to identify a person in a system. This process is called "sensitive data discovery"